An Attitude Control System to Constrain the Skin Temperature of a Manned Lifting Spacecraft During Reentry into the Earth'S Atmosphere

摘要

An attitude control system to regulate the temperature of a manned lifting spacecraft during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere is proposed. Its use prevents the peak skin temperature that is experienced during the reentry from rising moderately beyond that which would occur during an equilibrium glide of the same vehicle. The effects of Earth rotation and oblateness upon the performance of the attitude control system were found to be moderate and predictable. The maximum temperature increment associated with them was found to be only 100F for the worst set of initial conditions. The cross range shift of the footprint due to rotation was found to be within 70 miles of the value that would occur for the corresponding orbit in vacuum. Oblateness could generally be accounted for by using the effective initial glide angle relative to the Earth's surface rather than the geocentric initial value relative to the central coordinate system. The results of density variation in the Earth's atmosphere were not serious. Large increases in the maximum skin temperature occurred only when extremely large spatially random density disturbances were encountered by the vehicle. (Author)